WACO (March 6, 2013)--Joshua Taylor Smith, 21, who was arrested after a melee last month in the parking lot of the Hooters restaurant at 3927 Jack Kultgen Freeway in Waco, was named in an indictment Wednesday charging aggravated assault and endangering a child.

Smith was arrested following an argument between a teenage mother and the father of her 2-month-old daughter escalated into a pitched battle involving pepper spray and a knife in the restaurant’s parking lot.

The dispute started after the teenager and her boyfriend went to pick up the infant from a babysitter, who was waiting at the restaurant, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.

The dispute quickly escalated, moving from inside the restaurant to the parking lot where the woman pulled out her pepper spray and her boyfriend brandished a knife, Swanton said.

The teenage woman’s mother arrived in the middle of the spat and when the woman and infant attempted to leave with her, the boyfriend jumped onto the hood of the car in an attempt to stop them.

Three men inside the restaurant who witnessed the incident pulled him off of the car, Swanton said, but as the woman, her mother and the infant headed to Interstate 35, the man got in his van and rammed their vehicle, Swanton said.

Officers later arrested Smith in the 2100 block of South 21st Street.

He remained in the McLennan County Wednesday in lieu of bonds totaling $30,000.

Other Indictments Handed Up Wednesday

Richard Allen Butler, 27, of Waco, was indicted Wednesday for aggravated assault against a public servant and assault family violence by occlusion with a prior after an incident in January in which his mother was strangled and bitten in the face and an officer’s index finger was bitten, crushing the bone and nearly severing the fingertip.

He remains jailed in lieu of $100,000 bond.

Corey Matthew Carpenter, 23, of Waco was indicted for injury to an elderly individual in an incident on Jan. 25 in which his 65-year-old common law wife reported that a man grabbed her leg and pushed it over her head as she sat on a couch, causing severe pain

When the woman’s daughter arrived at the house and tried to intervene, the man punched her in the face, causing a cut that required 14 stitches, police said.

Carpenter remained jailed Wednesday in lieu of $5,000 bond.

Rudolph Darby, 44, a fugitive who was on the run for 14 years until his arrest in January, was indicted for aggravated assault against a public servant and evading arrest or detention with a vehicle.

The charges stem from an incident on Oct. 12, 2010 when a McLennan County deputy attempted to pull over the driver of a four-door Lincoln for a traffic violation.

The driver sped off and the deputy gave chase.

The pursuit ended when the Lincoln struck a parked boat and a tree, but the driver, whom investigators later identified as Joe Stewart, escaped.

In January, another deputy armed with new information was following up on the case and went to a home at 1649 North 15th A St. in Waco, where he made contact with the man.

The deputy involved in the 2010 chase confirmed the man’s identity and deputies obtained the arrest warrant.

Only after Stewart was in custody and fingerprinted did deputies discovery that he was actually Darby and that he was a fugitive from South Carolina, where he’s charged with assault with intent to kill, unlawful possession of a pistol, burglary, grand larceny and pointing and presenting a firearm.

He’s accused of burglarizing a home, pointing a shotgun at the homeowner and then leading deputies on a car chase that ended when he fired on two deputies, according to a statement from the Richland County, S.C. sheriff’s office.

After the shots were fired, Darby fled and remained on the run until his arrest in Waco.

He’s jailed in lieu of $10,000 bond on the local charges and without bond on a long list of South Carolina charges.

Tommie Edward Saulters, 37, was named in an indictment Wednesday charging aggravated assault against a public servant (habitual), evading arrest or detention with a vehicle (habitual), and resisting arrest with a deadly weapon (Habitual) stemming from a high-speed chase in January that wound for nearly an hour through Waco onto Interstate 35 and up Highway 6 and then back into the city on China Spring Road before it ended.

Saulters and Carrie Woodlock, 32, were arrested at the intersection of North 21st-A Street and Park Lake Drive after the fleeing driver’s car, with two shredded tires, collided with the rear of a police car.

The pursuit, which involved U.S. marshals, McLennan County deputies, state troopers and Waco police, started after marshals attempted to pull the car over on South Valley Mills Drive near Memorial Drive.

The driver, whom authorities identified as Saulters, was wanted for a state parole violation on a drug conviction, Kevin Scott of the U.S. Marshal’s Service said.

Instead of stopping, the driver pulled into a nearby shopping center and then onto Memorial and sped off with the marshals in pursuit.

At some point during the chase, the driver attempted to ram a U.S. marshal’s vehicle, and he also held his hand out the window and made a gesture as if he were firing a gun at pursuing officers, Scott said.

The driver, or one of the two people in the car with him, called 911 during the chase and was talking to a dispatcher, Scott said.

The driver rammed a Department of Public Safety trooper’s vehicle on North 19th Street, just before turning onto Park Lake moments before the chase ended, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said Friday.

After the car stopped, the driver refused to get out and officers had to break out the vehicle’s windows in order to take him into custody, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said Friday.

Saulters was wanted in Waco in connection with the theft of tools and a floor jack on Nov. 29 in the 4200 block of North 25th Street.

Officers used spike strips at least twice in an effort to stop the car, shredding a front a rear tire.

One witness counted as many as two-dozen patrol cars, but a News 10 reporter later counted 50 law enforcement vehicles in the area where the chase stopped.

Saulters and Woodlock both remained in the McLennan County Jail Wednesday.

Saulters is held in lieu of bonds totaling $195,000 and without bond on the parole violation and Woodlock is held without bond on the parole violation.

Renard Glenn Vaughn, 32, was named in an indictment charging assault family violence by occlusion (enhanced) and two counts of aggravated robbery (enhanced) in an incident in January in which a woman reported her ex-boyfriend had come into her house in the 600 block of Garland Street uninvited and assaulted her.

Swanton said the police report showed the victim was struck in the face as she lay in her bed.

He remains jailed on bonds totaling more than $270,000.

Alex Marquis Alexander was indicted Wednesday on four counts of sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child by contact.

He was arrested in November 2012 after an investigation that started in May 2012 when Alexander was arrested and charged with harboring a runaway.

Subsequent investigation led to the sexual assault of a child charge.

He’s free on bond, according to online jail records.

Danny Xavier Reynoso was named in an indictment charging two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and three counts of indecency with a child by contact.

He was arrested in December in Laredo as he tried to cross the international border into Mexico on warrants stemming from an incident that happened in July 2012 at a North Waco home.

He remains jailed in lieu of bonds totaling $760,000.

Kevin Allen McEwen of Moody was indicted Wednesday for continuous sexual abuse of a child and indecency with a child by contact.

He was arrested in December 2012.

An affidavit for the arrest warrant says beginning in September 2011 McEwen sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl several times at a residence in McLennan County.

He’s free on bond, online records show.

John David Schwarck was named in a six count indictment Wednesday charging two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and three counts of indecency with a child by contact.

According to an arrest affidavit says a 12-year-old girl reported she was sexually assaulted in May 2011 at a residence in Bruceville-Eddy.

The victim made an outcry to a friend and eventually was interviewed by caseworkers from the Child Protective Services division of the Department of Family and Protective Services and that led to a police investigation.

Records show Schwarck is a registered sex offender and has twice been arrested for failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements.

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